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Sunday, January 20, 2013

Bathroom Monologue: Debt Game

It goes like this.

The plumber wants the coins. He doesn’t know why, but he’ll
scarcely ever turn back in his furious pursuit rightwards of the shining golden
GIFs.

The player wants the plumber to have the coins. They’re a detached
score, extra lives, the promise of hidden unlockables, and most of all,
rotating motivation to make the plumber run faster into stimulation.

The designer wants the player to want the plumber to have
the coins. Getting hooked on this feedback loop will mean the player will play
it longer, play it more often, buy the sequels, the t-shirts, the cellphone
skin, the tie-in movies. Then the designer will be able to feed his family.

The publisher wants the designer to hook the player on getting
the plumber those coins. Employing and taking the work of such a designer means
greater profits for the release quarter, shareholder satisfaction, brand
awareness and stability. The publisher can turn this into an institution.

The investor wants the publisher to find the designers that
can hook the players to do dumb crap. Then the yields will be up, dividends may
begin, and the portfolio will be rosier. The investor can watch the publisher’s
daily NYSE rating tick up and down with news, reviews and sales figures of the designer’s
game that the player is playing. The chart goes up and down and ever rightward,
like the trails of someone jumping.

They all have less time than they think. Neither
plumber nor investor knows why.